Brand New First Full Moon Edition January 2025
Mario Medious II is a name you would know if you ever waded into those fast waters of Sixties and Seventies rock ‘n’ roll. He was the wizard of album promotions for Atlantic Records when Ahmet Ertegan and Jerry Wexler were helming perhaps the hottest label in the business. Mario’s job was to get those records played and he did. Big time. He worked with many of the top acts in the business and knew everybody. His stories pour out like liquid gold from a reservoir of experience. It was a lot of fun, he’ll tell you, but perilous at times, too (HERE).
If there were two people you might not want to chauffeur you through London after they’d been drinking until the wee hours, Keith Moon and John Bonham would top the list. One night after a party for the Stones, the two of them insisted on driving Mario back to his apartment. He declined but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I’ve got a brand new Rolls Royce,” Bonzo told him, “and you’ve got to let me drive you home.”
Next thing at 4 a.m. they were roaring through the city at 90 miles an hour, those two in the front talking, laughing, looking back over their shoulder to Mario seated in the place of honor. “I kept telling them to slow down, let me out, but they were having none of it. I said to myself, here I am with the two greatest rock drummers in the world and I know if we all get killed, the cops are gonna say ‘musta been the black guy driving.’” At a light where they had to stop, Mario jumped from the car and walked the rest of the way home with Moon and Bonham driving along side, begging him to get back in the car. “Last time I ever saw either one of them.” Both died shortly thereafter.
Things are moving so fast these days at 3QT that we failed to note last Thanksgiving was the second anniversary of the Freeform Radio website (HERE). If you haven’t checked it out lately, it continues to collect great material about that remarkable time when artistic freedom reigned on the public airwaves and the Classic Era of Rock Music was being created for your very own finely attuned ears.
It also continues to accumulate interest from notable people who are interested in seeing that story documented. One of our Founding Members, David Shepardson, who once was promotions director at KMPX-FM in San Francisco and later at KFML-AM&FM in Denver, has been relentlessly pursuing the attention of a select and influential cadre of folks who love the music and remember well the talented deejays who brought it our way. Stay tuned (as they say) for further developments.
Better yet, consider becoming a member of RadicalRadio. You’ll be adding your name and your tax-deductible donation (HERE) to a small, impressive group of people who have stepped up to help make this happen. Here’s a message from Steve Postell, famed studio musician and member of Immediate Family, about why Freeform Radio mattered to him (HERE). If it mattered to you, we’d welcome your support. Thanks!
The devastation visited on Los Angeles is an event that is nearly incomprehensible. We see the news reports, the videos of vast destruction, the thoughts it brings us of all the people who are suffering, their lives upended, in too many cases their homes burned to the ground, their city scarred beyond recognition.
Some died, more were injured, tens of thousands lost their homes. But for everyone, even those who managed to avoid the fires and their displacement, this trauma and its stress will last long after the embers are extinguished. For the rich, the poor, those in between, no one in the city can escape the effect of this tragedy. In a social order of such extremes, this catastrophe becomes the leveler. Everyone feels the pain.
It’s hard to say anything that doesn’t seem inconsequential in the scale of their loss, the sheer enormity of witnessing one of our great cities engulfed in flames. One wants to say something of comfort, of empathy, of community with those who suffer such anguish. But how? What? All that occurs to me is history tells us, even in the face of these horrors, people endure. They find a way to recover and go forward. This historic center of art and entertainment that has given all of us so much joy will come back. We can only hope and pray the healing begins soon.